PRELUDE TO 'ILLUSTRATED POEMS' <br /> <br />FULL well I know the frozen hand has come <br />That smites the songs of grove and garden dumb, <br />And chills sad autumn's last chrysanthemum; <br /> <br />Yet would I find one blossom, if I might, <br />Ere the dark loom that weaves the robe of white <br />Hides all the wrecks of summer out of sight. <br /> <br />Sometimes in dim November's narrowing day, <br />When all the season's pride has passed away, <br />As mid the blackened stems and leaves we stray, <br /> <br />We spy in sheltered nook or rocky cleft <br />A starry disk the hurrying winds have left, <br />Of all its blooming sisterhood bereft. <br /> <br />Some pansy, with its wondering baby eyes <br />Poor wayside nursling!--fixed in blank surprise <br />At the rough welcome of unfriendly skies; <br /> <br />Or golden daisy,--will it dare disclaim <br />The lion's tooth, to wear this gentler name? <br />Or blood-red salvia, with its lips aflame. <br /> <br />The storms have stripped the lily and the rose, <br />Still on its cheek the flush of summer glows, <br />And all its heart-leaves kindle as it blows. <br /> <br />So had I looked some bud of song to find <br />The careless winds of autumn left behind, <br />With these of earlier seasons' growth to bind. <br /> <br />Ah me! my skies are dark with sudden grief, <br />A flower lies faded on my garnered sheaf; <br />Yet let the sunshine gild this virgin leaf, <br /> <br />The joyous, blessed sunshine of the past, <br />Still with me, though the heavens are overcast,-- <br />The light that shines while life and memory last. <br /> <br />Go, pictured rhymes, for loving readers meant; <br />Bring back the smiles your jocund morning lent, <br />And warm their hearts with sunbeams yet unspent!<br /><br />Oliver Wendell Holmes<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/ave-2/
